June 2005
Media, Police, Politics, Street The city has been thrown into chaos following the assassination of James Drake, the Chief Constable of The Constabulary. Drake is believed to have been killed by assassins in the employment of The Gambinos, although this has not yet been confirmed and investigations are ongoing. A number of arrests have been made in connection with the assassination. Elsewhere, the focus has been on who will replace him as head of The Constabulary. The most likely candidate is John Winter, the current head of Internal Investigations. In the meantime, a special taskforce has been appointed to oversee operations and deal with the current situation until a new Chief Constable is appointed. Bureaucracy, Legal, Media, Police, Politics The Special Taskforce appointed to oversee the investigation into the assassination of James Drake has released its preliminary findings. It has stated that shortly after 9:30pm on Sunday 1st May 2005, the vehicle carrying James Drake and two other officers was rammed by a HumVee later identified to have been stolen from the police in an earlier incident. Mr. Drake’s driver was killed on impact and the second passenger was killed by a single shot to the head from outside of the vehicle. An accelerant (petrol) was then poured over the HumVee and set alight, resulting in the explosion and destruction of both vehicles. Due to the speed of the attack, the accompanying helicopter convoy was unable to prevent the assassination and despite satellite imaging being used, the attackers could not be traced back to their base of operations. No further details have been forthcoming and the investigation is ongoing. Bureaucracy, Media, Police, Transport Traffic between the city and the Moorlands was disrupted as The Constabulary began its investigation into the assassination of James Drake. The A53 was closed for a week as forensic officers searched for evidence that would identify the six individuals believed to have been involved in the assassination. Large parts of the road surface have had to be replaced as sections of the road were taken away for further analysis by the investigating team, leading to further delays due to the replacement works. The road has now been reopened fully, but drivers should still expect delays as The Constabulary has set up stopping points to control the potential flow of illegal weaponry into the city from the east. Legal, Media, Police, Underworld A twenty four hour media blackout was enforced following the assassination of James Drake to prevent known gang members fleeing the city to avoid the intensive police action that followed. In all, over a thousand individuals believed to be associated with the city’s gangs were arrested in the forty-eight hour period following the assassination, although over half of these have now been released with no charge. Meanwhile, it is rumoured that some gangs are carrying out their own internal investigations into the incident and disposing of anyone who may have been associated for fear of further unwanted police interest. The Constabulary has since given full details of all of its operations to the media and has asked for its cooperation. Finance, High Society, Media, Police Media darlings Scarlet are to hold a charity dinner in honour of James Drake, the assassinated head of The Constabulary. The group has been in contact with his widow to determine a list of his favourite charities whom will benefit from the £1000 per plate dinner. The gathering is not without its problems however, as security concerns for the attendees are causing a major headache for The Constabulary as many of the guests have been threatened with kidnap during the last month. The dinner is due to take place on Saturday 11th June. Media, Politics, Street Has a child of Castelan returned to enforce the rules of terror which have dominated the city for the last few years? Media, Police, Street The Constabulary has released digital images of the six suspects in the assassination of James Drake. The images, which have been broadcast nationally, were taken by the camera of the helicopter that was following Mr. Drake’s vehicle. The six suspects (four men and two women) have been cross referenced against both local and national crime databases, but have so far not been identified. The Constabulary is asking that anyone with any information as to the identities of the suspects contact them. A reward for any information that leads to an arrest has been offered. Church, Media, Police Both official guests and members of the public paid their last respects to James Drake today as he was buried with the full honours befitting an officer who was killed in the line of duty. The multi faith service focussed on the good the James Drake had done for the city, in particular his stamping out of corruption in the local police force following the collapse of Castelan. James Drake is survived by his wife and two children. Media, Police The more things change, the more they stay the same. Welcome home the Men in Black and their helicopter gunships. Who has The Constabulary in their pockets now? High Society, Police, Politics, Underworld Just how did someone manage to assassinate a major figure like James Drake, and more importantly, what did they hope to gain from doing so? As subsequent events have shown, the assassination has led to increased police activity on the streets of the city, a rise in gang associated violence and a drop in revenue for many of the city’s businesses as more and more people stay at home rather than risk being caught in the middle of an attack. Only if you were wishing to cause widespread disruption and chaos would you even begin to consider such a course of action. Media, Police, Street The Constabulary has reopened the investigation into The Endon Butcher following the discovery of Martin Wilkinson in the city centre. The remains of Mr. Wilkinson, an officer with The Constabulary, were discovered late last week in what investigating officers have described as “a manner similar to the victims in Endon”. If this marks the return of The Endon Butcher, then this will be the first murder for over eighteen months. The Constabulary is asking that anyone with information into the murder come forward. Occult, Street, Underworld Whatever killed Martin Wilkinson certainly wasn’t The Endon Butcher. There was no blood left in the body, and none where they found him either and The Endon Butcher hadn’t done that before. Also, why did he kill an individual? Surely if he moved he would have killed a family or something, its unknown for a serial killer to change their modus operandi. If you ask me it looks like someone’s been sloppy and they’re trying to pin it on him, but why not just make it look like a gang hit instead? Church, Media, Occult In what is surely one of the weirdest events of the month, church services were disrupted by flooding. In each case the source of the problem was the font, although no problems with the churches infrastructure could be found. Attempts to stop further floods were made in each case, but congregations from a number of churches affected had to be evacuated when water made the tiled floors slippery. No explanation as yet been determined. Church, Occult By water he comes / Cut off from the world / A lack of light his only comfort. ~ Text found at the base of the Font, St. Peters of the Vinculum. Street, Underworld Major hostilities have broken out between the city’s gangs following the assassination of James Drake, as each appears to be attempting to capitalise on the situation. On the top tier of the conflict are The Gambinos and The Sandernacht Group, both of whom appear to be absorbing the smaller gangs within the city by offering protection from attacks by rival gangs. Below that, what remains of The Daughters of the Desert and the Ashoka both remain active. Lastly, many of the smaller street gangs are establishing their own turf as the larger groups seek to consolidate their own. Occult, Underworld The Gambinos have denied all involvement in the assassination of James Drake, noting that they were all outside of the city at the time of the shooting. Further evidence has also shown that one of the suspects may be involved in The Sandernacht Group as footage of them meeting with high level figures within the gang have been released onto the internet. A court order is now being sought to determine who posted the images and whether they have any involvement with either gang. Finance, Industry, Police, Underworld Security has been raised at all of the city’s banks, building societies and casinos as more and more gangs turn to robbery to finance their war as other funding starts to dry up. A number of banks have been raided over the last month, usually following the kidnapping of the banks manager and forcing him to give them access to the vault. The Constabulary has now implemented protection for all bank employees travelling to and from work in an attempt to prevent further incidents. Bureaucracy, Health, Media, Police, Street, Underworld The city’s hospitals have been stretched almost to breaking point as more and more victims of gang related violence are admitted. Over the last month there has been a four fold increase in the number of drive by shootings, whilst beatings and stabbings have risen eightfold. None emergency operations have had to be cancelled on numerous occasions following large scale attacks and day admissions have been cancelled completely. Officers from The Constabulary have also had to appoint guards after fights broke out between rival injured gang members in the wards. Further funding is being sought to try to deal with the situation. Police, Transport, Underworld Outside contractors are undertaking hits on behalf of both The Gambino’s and The Sandernacht Group on an almost daily basis as each tries to eliminate the opposition. The most popular method remains the drive by shooting, with motorcycle riders surrounding the vehicle and “hosing” the occupants with bullets. The speed of the attacks often means that the target does not get time to mount a defence. The Constabulary is no regularly stopping all motor cyclists and searching them for illegal weaponry. Health, Politics, Underworld A curious positive aspect of the gangs trying to rip each other to shreds is that they’ve had less time to sell drugs on the street, forcing many addicts to attempt to clean up and enter recovery programs. Gang members seemed to have turned to robbery and mugging as a means of financing their activities, further reducing the number of people on the streets after dark. No matter who wins the current war they will have to spend a lot of money afterwards in gaining control of the common man on the streets. Legal, Police, Street If you’re going out on the streets, make sure your not carrying anything you shouldn’t be, The Constabulary seems to have developed a nose for sniffing out anything you shouldn’t be have and will stop and search you. Jimmy got pulled over the other day and was carrying a knife, don’t know how bug, but a knife. The Constabulary put him in a cell for 24 hours before they released him, wanted to give him time to cool down whilst they searched his apartment. If you ask me they’re up to something else as well, but I can’t put my finger on it. Media, Police, Politics, Underworld The Constabulary have been praised for their discovery of a large arms cache in the Trentham area. Details remain limited at this time, but it is believed that an anonymous tip off led officers from The Constabulary to the Sutherland Family Crypt where a large number of firearms and explosives were being stored. All of the ordinance have now been removed from the site and sent for safe destruction following cataloguing. The Constabulary have opened an investigation into the matter. Bureaucracy, Police, Transport Either my maths is wrong or two less vehicles reported in than the number that left the Trentham arms cache. All of the support vehicles have been accounted for, but two security vans are unaccounted for. If you ask me I think it’s an administrative cock up, The Constabulary was so keen to get those weapons out of the area that it got a bit over enthusiastic. Still there’s something odd about the way that it happened, especially considering the number of officials who were there at the time. Health, Occult, Street One things for sure, The Gambino’s didn’t own that arsenal they found in Trentham, its too far south in the city for them to have anything to do with. My best guess would be that they belong either to The Sandernacht Group or someone associated with them. From what I’ve heard however The Constabulary is more interested in those three bodies that they pulled out. Had some weird sort of sleeping disorder I heard, and a bunch of other stuff besides. Bureaucracy, Industry, Police The Constabulary is currently accepting tenders for the safe destruction of the ordinance found at the Sutherland Family Crypt. Tenders will need to show that they are capable of disposing of all of the weapons, ammunition and explosives safely in conjunction with the authorities, and that sufficient security to ensure that nothing is stolen from the premises during the operation. Tenders should ideally have experience of heavy industry and access to a smelting facility. Bureaucracy, Legal, Occult, Police, Politics Who is the mysterious group working in conjunction with The Constabulary, and which of them is calling the shots? From what I hear The Constabulary got pretty jumpy when they opened up that crypt, something about flames coming from the floor. No one was allowed to enter until the “Men in Black” had had a good look around, and even then they were keeping a tight leash on things. If you ask me it seems that The Constabulary is contracting out some of its work to ex-Castelan agents. But wasn’t one of the terms of their appointment that they wouldn’t do that? Transport, Underworld Whoever controlled that arms cache at Trentham must be feeling the pinch now. There was enough in there to kit out a small army, all decent stuff to. If you ask me, that raid is the reason that the price of getting hold of a piece has gone up so much, there’s nothing left on the street as The Constabulary confiscates more and more of it. Gun running has always been profitable, now it seems like a sure thing, if you can get it into the area. Bureaucracy, Health, Media, Politics An entire wing of the City General was closed off following the admission of the three bodies found at the Trentham arms cache. Investigators from the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre requested the wing in order to prevent the spread of any pathogens the bodies may be host to. Troops from the Staffordshire Regiment have also been posted at the hospital to prevent terrorists gaining access to the bodies in case of a biological threat. No further details of their condition have been made public. Health, Occult, Street Rumourhas it that whatever they pulled out of that arms dump in Trentham wasn’t human, and that’s the real reason that they’ve got the military there protecting them. When you add the discovery of listening equipment at the site and holographic flame projectors, it all adds up to some serious shit. Whoever it belonged to was messing with some dangerous stuff. ~ Unidentified Loon, Phoenix Tower Construction Site. Media, University Professors at Keele University have claimed a breakthrough in the study of dark matter. The new findings were discovered during routine maintenance of the university’s particle accelerator. Scientists at the university were able to isolate and contain a single atom of dark matter within a low strength gravitational field, something that was previously thought impossible. Research is to continue into the phenomena to see if the results can be replicated. Occult, Politics, University Rumour control. The professors at Keele University didn’t succeed in creating a particle of dark matter, they found it. Hear me out on this one, okay? You see, the history department has been contracted out to do some work for the Navy, mainly translations and stuff from some books they recently found. No one’s saying where they found them. Apparently these books had to be decontaminated before anyone could touch them, they were covered in some sort of radioactive compound. Any, whatever this compound was, it wasn’t like any other radioactive material that science has come across before. For a start it absorbed light. Whatever it is it’s got a lot of people nervous, rumour has it that there are government agents working on campus now to make sure it stays there. Bureaucracy, Finance, Industry, Politics Construction of the primary structure of the sixth Phoenix Tower has been completed and work has now begun on securing the secondary steelwork and structural floors. Ebullio continue to fight with the planners regarding the nature of the construction, although a number of key issues have now been resolved. Figures produced for the proposed geo-thermal technology that will power the building show that it will meet and exceed its energy requirements within a two year period. Discussions have now opened between the developer and the council to make use of this surplus energy. Finance, Media, Politics When will the people benefit from the money invested in the city? New Towers are one thing, but what about the safety and welfare of the population who maintain the city?